Given how well John did on that challenge at RI, I wonder why he was not part of the first puzzle challenge (that cierra and the other girl lost). Also, no doubt in my mind that he would have helped his tribe win had Cierra been the one voted out at the last tribal.

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Culpepper and his followers made a stupid decision when they blindsided John. When your team is already down in numbers, the last thing you want to do is vote off the strength.

Everyone except the 2 who are tied draws rocks and one of them goes home. That's a pretty good incentive to not have a 2nd tie vote.

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Yep, that's how it would have played out. Here's a quote from Jeff Probst:

We do the vote and we have a tie. When we have a tie, we do one re-vote and the rules are that if nobody changes their vote and we remain tied, then the two people tied are now immune (yes, immune) and the rest of the tribe must draw rocks to see who goes home. The person who draws the odd rock is out.

One thing has bothered me about the clue to the hidden immunity idol. The person that wins the Redemption Island challenge can give the clue to whoever they want in the form of a scroll. How can the same clue be valuable to both tribes, when the geography surrounding each camp is completely different? It's not as if the idol can be hidden in the exact same spot at both camps.

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They were at least once. In season 18 (which I'm watching now) both idols are hidden in the treemail statue.

But what if two people change their votes and end up with another tie?

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According to the quote, they go to the rocks if nobody changes their vote, therefore, in your scenario, they shouldn't pull rocks. The words in the quote could have easily been "...if after the second vote we remain tied...". He specifically mentioned nobody changing a vote and remaining tied, however.

I didn't notice this time, but last time Jeff waited until the person was chosen, then he reached in his pocket to get the scroll. My guess there are multiple scrolls with different clues depending on the person/tribe.

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Yeah, this would make the most sense. Different clues for different tribes, and when John was still there it was his 2nd clue vs anyone else's 1st clue.

According to the quote, they go to the rocks if nobody changes their vote, therefore, in your scenario, they shouldn't pull rocks. The words in the quote could have easily been "...if after the second vote we remain tied...". He specifically mentioned nobody changing a vote and remaining tied, however.

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You're parsing it like a lawyer. This is not written in some "Survivor policy and rules book", it was just an explanation by Probst. I think the spirit of what he says is pretty evident.

The quote you put from Probst didn't come over, but is this a recent quote? For some reason I thought they got rid of the purple rock and use fire-making between the 2 instead.

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Found my own answer. I see now that your quote was from this week's Q&A between Dalton and Probst.

That was such a horrible way it played out before when the one dude ended up going home because of it, that I thought I had heard that they dropped the dreaded purple rock. Guess not. Which is why I could understand Vytas switching. If he doesn't switch, Brad and Cierra stay and Vytas now has a 25% chance of randomly going home. No way should he let that happen. And lol at Hayden taking that chance.

But it does bring up a good point. Probst's answer specifically said "if nobody changes their vote and we remain tied, then the two people tied are now immune (yes, immune) and the rest of the tribe must draw rocks to see who goes home." So, in regards to the bolded, what if Vytas switched his vote but Caleb also switched his vote and they were still tied. What happens then?

You're parsing it like a lawyer. This is not written in some "Survivor policy and rules book", it was just an explanation by Probst. I think the spirit of what he says is pretty evident.

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While this may be true, I don't think it's evident. He made his explanation lengthier by including a qualifier. I am no lawyer (nor have I even stayed at a Holiday Inn recently) but it would have been easier to just say "after another tie we pull rocks", if that is in fact what happens without regard to votes changed or not.

If it is a tie, and then a tie again, they can draw rocks. No one cares which specific vote a person casts. A tie is the contestants getting the same number of votes.

And the rules actually add another step in the process - there can be a 2 minute discussion about who to vote out. This has never happened in the game, though, but it is allowed based on the producers discretion.